{p class=”krtHeadline”}High school sports are an element of public education and public business, over which the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association has nearly total regulatory and administrative authority, from player eligibility to rules of competition.
{p class=”krtText”}Public schools, which derive almost all of their money from taxpayers, pay dues to the organization.
{p class=”krtText”}And if the PIAA did not handle the job, the state Department of Education would do it, just as it administers other elements of state education law and policy.
{p class=”krtText”}Yet the agency continues to argue in court that it is not a public agency because it does not receive tax money, which would be a thin reed on which to cling even if it were true. It receives tax money through public school districts.
{p class=”krtText”}The matter is before the Supreme Court because the PIAA has rejected requests from Simon Campbell of Berks County for records of PIAA District 4 revenue and spending. A newspaper in the region also has been unable to obtain such records from the agency.
{p class=”krtText”}The state Office of Open Records and the Commonwealth Court already have found that the PIAA is subject to the state Open Records Law, which is hardly surprising since the General Assembly included the agency in the disclosure law.
{p class=”krtText”}Moreover, a key underlying issue was resolved more than a decade ago when The Times-Tribune, a Times-Shamrock newspaper, sought records from the Lackawanna County Stadium Authority on bids for a concession contract at PNC Field, which county taxpayers own. The authority declined because the bids were solicited by a management group it had contracted to operate the stadium. That company also declined to divulge the documents.
{p class=”krtText”}The Office of Open Records, Lackawanna County Court, state Commonwealth Court and, ultimately, the state Supreme Court all ruled in the newspaper’s favor. They found that a third party hired to conduct government business, that the government otherwise would do itself, has the same obligation as the government to disclose public information.
{p class=”krtText”}The PIAA is, and must be, a public agency. It should abandon its appeal and release the information.
{p class=”krtText” style=”text-align: right;”}— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS
